


When the Farsei Blooms: Night Terrors

by prairiecrow



Series: When the Farsei Blooms [4]
Category: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Genre: Cuddling and Snuggling, Established Relationship, M/M, Nightmares
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-12-20
Updated: 2011-12-20
Packaged: 2017-10-27 14:57:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,070
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/297074
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/prairiecrow/pseuds/prairiecrow
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Set post-Chapter 39 of "When the Farsei Blooms". Borik has a restless night and Aslel does his duty. WARNING: contains major spoilers for the ultimate fate of Esa Kassar.</p>
            </blockquote>





	When the Farsei Blooms: Night Terrors

**Author's Note:**

> I hope people will forgive me for posting a story where Garak and Bashir are only mentioned in passing, but it's part of the "WtFB" corpus and a couple of folks DID say that they'd be interested in an Aslel/Borik story...

Terka Aslel had already had a very cold and busy night, so when he was roused from a sound sleep by the twitching and whimpering of his  _artor p'tak'ara_  against his back he gritted his teeth and waited for the spell to pass. It did not, and he knew better than to be surprised. The mere mention of a Naievirl shaman, much less the thought of its evil spirit-helper, always sent his partner into a tizzy of fear and anxiety, and tonight they'd faced both a  _miiala_  and his soul-stealing  _ennialal_  — or so the filthy Savage had done his best to make them believe. As far as Aslel was concerned it was all superstitious o’wn  _korak_ , but try telling Borik as much; that was about as effective as trying to talk a  _korkal_  out of freezing when it thought it saw the shadow of a  _gro'kar_. 

He endured the restless squirming for a good twenty breaths before resigning himself to the inevitable and turning over on the narrow bed they shared, making no effort to be stealthy about it. Borik was facing the wall, and in the moonlight that fell across them in a white bar from the high narrow window Aslel could see him curled up around a pillow he'd drawn into his arms, hugging it tight as he struggled with the nightmare that held him in its grip. The blankets that lay over them were warm and thick — the Yolin Guild provided only the best for its members while they were lodged in the small rooms of its hostel — but when Aslel moved in close behind his friend he found the plump little Cardassian thoroughly chilled, his bare skin like ice from knees to neck. With a soft growl Aslel wound his right arm over the smaller man, slipping it between the upper curve of his belly and the pillow with some difficulty, and drew him into a close embrace.

"Borik." He spoke in a low voice, pitched to a note of stern command. The smaller man hissed and shivered again but did not awaken. "Borik!" Still no response — he must be deep in dreams indeed. Aslel silently petitioned Gart for patience and dipped the forefinger and middle finger of his right hand into the spoon on his partner's chest, rubbing it with slow firm pressure as he shifted tone to a crooning murmur against the little ridges that framed Borik's ear. "Wake up, Noress! It's all right — I'm here, you're safe, nothing's going to hurt you…" It was a trick for soothing children, but it worked like an  _ash'uar_ 's charm: finally Borik jerked awake, lay tense for a long moment, then relaxed back against Aslel with a gusty sigh.

"Oh! Oh Aslel!" he whispered urgently. "I dreamed that —!" He shivered again, then spoke in a rush: "We were out at the campsite where Bashir got taken, and one of the Savage warriors nicked you with an arrow when we tried to run away, and I couldn't drag you through the forest fast enough and the  _miiala_ 's  _ennialal_  caught us there in the darkness and it — it took your —"

He trembled miserably. Aslel changed tactics, expanding his slow caress to cover the whole of Borik's breastplate. "Nonsense!" he scoffed. "I'm right here, all in one healthy piece — no thanks to that  _hissar_  and his fool's quest — and so are you. Dreams aren't worth the vapours from a  _sivak_  fire, you know that as well as I do."

Borik was silent for a brief and still troubled moment. "But the  _ash'uar_  say —"

"They'll say anything to get people to follow them around like a  _korkal_  on a chain." He knew that Borik was devout and as a rule he avoided bringing up his own attitudes about the priesthood out of consideration for his partner's feelings, but tonight he was tired and annoyed and just wanted the conversation to be over. "Including lie about being able to see the future. Go back to sleep,  _artor p'tak_ , and leave the falsehoods to men who make a career out of them. You never were very good at it and all thinking about it will do is give you more nightmares."

Another hesitation. A nod. "You're right, of course."

"Of course." He huffed into Borik's delicately scaled ear and pulled him closer yet, breathing in the clean scent of his hair: they'd enjoyed a long hot bath together earlier in the evening and this night's various exertions — amorous with the Tortal Sisters, violent with Esa Kassar's soldiers — hadn't gotten them too dirty. "Now go to sleep," he repeated, "and don't worry about anything you see in your dreams. All you have to do is call on me with my sword and you know I'll drive it away."

"I know." He settled back against Aslel's flat chest and belly, his breathing already beginning to slow and deepen, then suddenly abandoned the pillow and turned over to snuggle against the taller man, wrapping his left arm around him and nudging his nose under the line of Aslel's jaw. "Thought I'd lost you," he murmured sleepily. "I don't know what I'd ever do if I lost you."

"Well, I'm not a quarter the fool Garak was, so there's no danger of  _that_." Aslel closed his eyes again and was pleased to feel Borik growing warmer as his terror steadily faded. "Or Bashir either. We're well rid of them,  _r'harli io_ , and the day after tomorrow we'll be on the road to Zio Darrak and we can put this all behind us."

He thought that Borik had fallen asleep again and was well on the way to that state himself when his friend asked quietly: "Aslel?"

He sighed with an edge of weary irritation. "What is it now?"

"Did you…? Her, I mean."

This time Aslel's sigh was resigned. "Of course I did. Do you think I'd leave anyone alive who could crush us — or that fool you'd become enamoured of — so easily?"

Borik was silent for a span of slow breaths. "I'm glad you didn't tell Bashir. It would have upset him terribly."

Aslel snorted softly against the hair of his  _artor p'tak_. "I don't give a  _gro'kar_ 's scat for  _his_  feelings, as you well know. I did it for you. Now for the last time, go to sleep. Morning comes early and we've been awake long enough as it is."

THE END

**Author's Note:**

> artor p'tak'ara -- a Neomna IV Kardasi term loosely translatable as "blood brothers/friends with benefits"  
> miiala -- a Naievirl shaman  
> ennialal -- a Naievirl shaman's familiar  
> korkal -- a small swift forest animal commonly hunted for food  
> gro'kar -- a large forest predator  
> ash'uar -- Cardassian priests  
> sivak fire -- a fire lit on ceremonial occasions, in which sacrifices of bone and fat are immolated  
> r'harli io -- an endearment in the dialect of Aslel's home province: "little bird", specifically a type of bird similar to a Terran English robin in shape.


End file.
